Roentgen's discovery of the x-ray Roentgen's discovery of the x-ray Enlarge Find more x-rays in the X-ray gallery . Try to imagine how different life would be without modern medical technology. In 1895, the invention of the x-ray created an amazing step forward in the history of medicine. For the first time ever, the inner workings of the body could be made visible without having to cut into the flesh. Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics in Worzburg, Bavaria, was the first person to discover the possibility of using electromagnetic radiation to create what we now know as the x-ray. The image below is the first x-ray Roentgen ever created. It is an image of his wife's hand - you can see her wedding ring. Roentgen was exploring the path of electrical rays passing from an induction coil through a partially evacuated glass tube. Although the tube was covered in black paper and the room was completely dark, he noticed that a screen covered in fluorescent material was illuminated by the rays. He later realised that a number of objects could be penetrated by these rays, and that the projected image of his own hand showed a contrast between the opaque bones and the translucent flesh.

He later used a photographic plate instead of a screen, and an image was captured. In this way an extraordinary discovery had been made: that the internal structures of the body could be made visible without the necessity of surgery. By 1896 an x-ray department had been set up at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, one of the first radiology departments in the world. The head of the department, Dr John Macintyre, produced a number of remarkable x-rays: the first x-ray of a kidney stone; an x-ray showing a penny in the throat of a child, and an image of a frog's legs in motion. In the same year Dr Hall-Edwards became one of the first people to use an x-ray to make a diagnosis - he discovered a needle embedded in a woman's hand. In the first twenty years following Roentgen's discovery, x-rays were used to treat soldiers fighting in the Boer war and those fighting in WWI, finding bone fractures and imbedded bullets. Much excitement surrounded the new technology, and x-ray machines started to appear as a wondrous curiosity in theatrical shows.

It was eventually recognised that frequent exposure to x-rays could be harmful, and today special measures are taken to protect the patient and doctor. By the early 1900s the damaging qualities of x-rays were shown to be very powerful in fighting cancers and skin diseases. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biographical Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Share this: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biographical Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany, as the only child of a merchant in, and manufacturer of, cloth. His mother was Charlotte Constanze Frowein of Amsterdam, a member of an old Lennep family which had settled in Amsterdam. When he was three years old, his family moved to Apeldoorn in The Netherlands, where he went to the Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn, a boarding school. He did not show any special aptitude, but showed a love of nature and was fond of roaming in the open country and forests.

He was especially apt at making mechanical contrivances, a characteristic which remained with him also in later life. In 1862 he entered a technical school at Utrecht, where he was however unfairly expelled, accused of having produced a caricature of one of the teachers, which was in fact done by someone else. He then entered the University of Utrecht in 1865 to study physics. Not having attained the credentials required for a regular student, and hearing that he could enter the Polytechnic at Zurich by passing its examination, he passed this and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering. He attended the lectures given by Clausius and also worked in the laboratory of Kundt. Both Kundt and Clausius exerted great influence on his development. In 1869 he graduated Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, was appointed assistant to Kundt and went with him to Würzburg in the same year, and three years later to Strasbourg. In 1874 he qualified as Lecturer at Strasbourg University and in 1875 he was appointed Professor in the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim in Württemberg.

In 1876 he returned to Strasbourg as Professor of Physics, but three years later he accepted the invitation to the Chair of Physics in the University of Giessen. After having declined invitations to similar positions in the Universities of Jena (1886) and Utrecht (1888), he accepted it from the University of Würzburg (1888), where he succeeded Kohlrausch and found among his colleagues Helmholtz and Lorenz. In 1899 he declined an offer to the Chair of Physics in the University of Leipzig, but in 1900 he accepted it in the University of Munich, by special request of the Bavarian government, as successor of E. Lommel. Here he remained for the rest of his life, although he was offered, but declined, the Presidency of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt at Berlin and the Chair of Physics of the Berlin Academy. Röntgen's first work was published in 1870, dealing with the specific heats of gases, followed a few years later by a paper on the thermal conductivity of crystals.

Among other problems he studied were the electrical and other characteristics of quartz; the influence of pressure on the refractive indices of various fluids; the modification of the planes of polarised light by electromagnetic influences; the variations in the functions of the temperature and the compressibility of water and other fluids; the phenomena accompanying the spreading of oil drops on water. Röntgen's name, however, is chiefly associated with his discovery of the rays that he called X-rays. In 1895 he was studying the phenomena accompanying the passage of an electric current through a gas of extremely low pressure. Previous work in this field had already been carried out by J. Plucker (1801-1868), J. W. Hittorf (1824-1914), C. F. Varley (1828-1883), E. Goldstein (1850-1931), Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), H. Hertz (1857-1894) and Ph.

von Lenard (1862-1947), and by the work of these scientists the properties of cathode rays - the name given by Goldstein to the electric current established in highly rarefied gases by the very high tension electricity generated by Ruhmkorff's induction coil - had become well known. Röntgen's work on cathode rays led him, however, to the discovery of a new and different kind of rays. On the evening of November 8, 1895, he found that, if the discharge tube is enclosed in a sealed, thick black carton to exclude all light, and if he worked in a dark room, a paper plate covered on one side with barium platinocyanide placed in the path of the rays became fluorescent even when it was as far as two metres from the discharge tube. During subsequent experiments he found that objects of different thicknesses interposed in the path of the rays showed variable transparency to them when recorded on a photographic plate.

When he immobilised for some moments the hand of his wife in the path of the rays over a photographic plate, he observed after development of the plate an image of his wife's hand which showed the shadows thrown by the bones of her hand and that of a ring she was wearing, surrounded by the penumbra of the flesh, which was more permeable to the rays and therefore threw a fainter shadow. This was the first "röntgenogram" ever taken. In further experiments, Röntgen showed that the new rays are produced by the impact of cathode rays on a material object. Because their nature was then unknown, he gave them the name X-rays. Later, Max von Laue and his pupils showed that they are of the same electromagnetic nature as light, but differ from it only in the higher frequency of their vibration. Numerous honours were showered upon him. In several cities, streets were named after him, and a complete list of Prizes, Medals, honorary doctorates, honorary and corresponding memberships of learned societies in Germany as well as abroad, and other honours would fill a whole page of this book.

In spite of all this, Röntgen retained the characteristic of a strikingly modest and reticent man. Throughout his life he retained his love of nature and outdoor occupations. Many vacations were spent at his summer home at Weilheim, at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, where he entertained his friends and went on many expeditions into the mountains. He was a great mountaineer and more than once got into dangerous situations. Amiable and courteous by nature, he was always understanding the views and difficulties of others. He was always shy of having an assistant, and preferred to work alone. Much of the apparatus he used was built by himself with great ingenuity and experimental skill. Röntgen married Anna Bertha Ludwig of Zürich, whom he had met in the café run by her father. She was a niece of the poet Otto Ludwig. They married in 1872 in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. They had no children, but in 1887 adopted Josephine Bertha Ludwig, then aged 6, daughter of Mrs. Röntgen's only brother.

Four years after his wife, Röntgen died at Munich on February 10, 1923, from carcinoma of the intestine. From Nobel Lectures , Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967 This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above. The Discovery of X-Rays The Discovery of X-Rays After reading this section you will be able to do the following: Summarize how Roentgen discovered the X-ray. Discuss the impact Roentgen's discovery had on the world at that time (1895), and then compare it to the impact it still has today. First, the discovery of X-rays In late 1895, a German physicist, W. C. Roentgen was working with a cathode ray tube in his laboratory. He was working with tubes similar to our fluorescent light bulbs. He evacuated the tube of all air, filled it with a special gas, and passed a high electric voltage through it.

When he did this, the tube would produce a fluorescent glow. Roentgen shielded the tube with heavy black paper, and found that a green colored fluorescent light could be seen coming from a screen setting a few feet away from the tube. He realized that he had produced a previously unknown "invisible light," or ray, that was being emitted from the tube; a ray that was capable of passing through the heavy paper covering the tube. Through additional experiments, he also found that the new ray would pass through most substances casting shadows of solid objects on pieces of film. He named the new ray X-ray, because in mathematics "X" is used to indicated the unknown quantity. In his discovery Roentgen found that the X-ray would pass through the tissue of humans leaving the bones and metals visible. One of RoentgenÂs first experiments late in 1895 was a film of his wife Bertha's hand with a ring on her finger (shown below on right). The news of RoentgenÂs discovery spread quickly throughout the world. Scientists everywhere could duplicate his experiment because the cathode tube was very well known during this period.

In early 1896, X-rays were being utilized clinically in the United States for such things as bone fractures and gun shot wounds. Take a look at these early x-rays. ---------- X-rays were discovered by William Roentgen while experimenting with a cathode radiation . 83.07.01: An Historical Overview of the Discovery of the X-Ray An Historical Overview of the Discovery of the X-Ray by TheScienceClassroom - Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen References He influenced the work of men like Nikola Tesla , the true inventor of the radio. He inspired women like Marie Curie , the world's most famous scientist, to use his discoveries for the greater good of science. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (it can also be spelled Roentgen) was a Prussian (German) physicist most famous for being the first person to take x-ray photographs. He was credited to be the man that discovered these rays of electromagnetic radiation in the first place, and that is why X-rays can also be formerly known as Röntgen radiation. In addition, the unit that is used to measure these rays, roentgen, is named after him as well.

[ ³ ] This is what made him the first person ever to receive a Nobel Prize in the area of Physics for this type of work. However, he also studied in the areas of elasticity, specific heats in gases and crystals, piezoelectricity, and much more. [ ¹ ] Without his main interest in the unique radiation of x-rays and fluorescence, however, medical science today would not be. It would be nearly impossible to determine fractures in a bone or discover signs of pneumonia by examining x-rays of the lungs, or even get proper dental health care because there would not be a way to clearly look at one's teeth in their skull and determine what needs to be fixed. Overall, his serendipitous discovery of how specific things could reflect to light due to unknown radiation (hence the term X-rays) may have very well saved millions of lives and time on our Earth today. Insight and Influences Image courtesy of Medcyclopaedia Born in Lennep, Prussia on Thursday, March 27th, 1845, Röntgen was born to a family consisting of a reserved, amiable farmer of a father and a mother of a modest and simple lifestyle.

Being an only child, his parents' characteristics heavily influenced him through his early years, keeping him happy and simple-minded even as he was surrounded by early European revolution (inspired by the French Revolution that began in 1848) during his childhood. [ ² ] During that time, Prussia was considered one of many German states that, along with others, was to "be returned to the restored German Confederation". [ ⁴ ] Since there was much chaos, Röntgen’s family sold their house and they emigrated to Apeldoorn, located in The Netherlands. The main reason for this was that his mother was of Dutch origin, and they felt it would be safe there. He went into a private boarding school in Apeldoorn shortly after finishing primary school and ultimately got expelled due to a childish prank he may not have been at fault for. The story goes that one of Wilhelm's classmates had drawn a cartoon of their teacher on the firescreen, and the teacher was angered by it upon discovering it. The teacher furiously asked Röntgen to name the culprit, and when Wilhelm did not do as he was asked, he was quickly expelled from the school.

[ ³ ] Regardless, he continued with his studies at home as advised by some of his father's friends, so he could prepare himself for the examination he would have to take to get into a university. Sadly, one of the people who examined him during one of these tests was one of the faculty members that had expelled him, and he was turned away. [ ⁵ ] Later in 1862, however, he enrolled at the Utrech Technical School, which was a private area that prepared students for a tech high school. The school did this by offering the kids to take a two-year course. Three years later, Röntgen became enrolled as a visiting student in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Utrech, and in November of that year (1865) he moved to Zürich, Switzerland. Apparently, in the Polytechnic of Zürich, students who lacked a school leaving diploma could be accepted. Röntgen wasted no time in enrolling into the school. While he was studying in Zürich, he focused on mechanical engineering with successful results. He received a diploma in that area of study, but he decided to eagerly continue his studies.

He also began to cooperate with August Kundt, a professor in the area of Physics at only 29 years old. At the young age of 24, Röntgen soon became to be his close assistant in the Department of Experimental Physics. On June 12, 1869, Röntgen received his Ph. D degree from the University of Zürich. Only a year later, Kundt left to be Chair of Physics at the University of Würzburg, and Röntgen followed close behind. [⁵] Afterwards, he was a professor of Physics at multiple universities. Not only was he at Würzburg, but his progression also led him to Geissen (1879-1888) and Munich (1900-1920). Würzburg, however, was almost a stopping point for him. According to a Bavarian law of the time, Röntgen was unable to continue with his studies for two main reasons: he lacked a leaving-school certificate, and he lacked sufficient study in these areas (even though Kundt had tried to train him on his behalf as best as he could, it appeared that it was not enough).

However, in 1872, Kundt was invited to the German University of Strassbourg (it is now located in France). Kundt took his assistant with him to the newly-founded university, and they found that this university actually helped Röntgen more with his scientific studies and career. They appointed Röntgen to the title of "Privat- Dozent" and he became a lecturer at this university. [ ⁵ ] Major Contributions Image courtesy of Wired It was in 1895, however, that Röntgen was able to put his years of physics studies into amazing use. When working with a vacuum tube covered in ebony-colored paper whilst he worked in a dark room, he began to study some electrical paths of rays. He did this by placing an induction coil in the tube and allowing the current to run through so he could examine the rays' paths. He watched the rays with curiosity and was amazed to find that, even though everything was dark in the room, one of the screens nearby which contained fluorescent material was glowing, illuminated by these rays. Now truly interested, he began testing to see if other objects could show these same results.

Sure enough, he discovered that multiple objects reacted to these rays of light. Later, he wondered: why not put a photographic plate instead of a screen? Upon using a plate instead of the previous screen, he also discovered that skin and bones would react as well, the skin appearing more translucent while the bones appeared a darker shade in the photo that developed. [ ⁶ ] Only a year later, the Glasgow Royal Infirmary (one of the very first departments dedicated to radiology) set up an x-ray department. The head of this department used Röntgen’s discovery to start producing more amazing x-rays. One doctor that year even used this new technology to conclude the diagnosis of a needle in a woman's hand- the first doctor ever to do that. Following shortly after that, x-rays began to be used excitedly for other things like the first World War, used eagerly to treat fighting soldiers. The way that this unknown radiation works, however, is truly remarkable. He was able to serendipitously discover such a fantastic new way of seeing the world, and still today, some cannot quite wrap their head around how this was managed.

In reality, the way that x-radiation can be seen on a photograph is not at all that complicated. In order to understand, one must visualize the electromagnetic spectrum. It shows wavelengths, that much is true, and it is seen in that broad spectrum that as these wavelengths begin to decrease in size, their energy builds. These wavelengths belong to the x-ray category. However, it seems that when spoken of, the wavelengths of x-rays are never truly mentioned. This is mostly due to two very significant reasons: x-rays' wavelengths are considerably small, and the light "tends to act more like a particle than a wave." [ ⁷ ] Now, in order to make it to where one can see the x-rays, these light particles (photons) need to be sent out into some metallic surface for them to appear. Also, they have to be projected in a concentrated beam of light- this way, upon collision, the metallic surface and the projected charged electrons give out an astounding amount of electromagnetic radiation which, Röntgen discovered, was odd and unknown to him. This is why he nicknamed them x-rays, and much to his dismay, the name stuck. However, the metallic surface isn't the only thing required.

There is also a second sheet, used as a filter, and this sheet is what keeps the rays from scattering and making the final picture blurry. When light is shot through these filters, the clear images of some specific objects can be seen- bones, metals, specific amounts of tissue in a body, etc. [ ⁸ ] One must be careful when taking x-rays repeatedly, though. It has been proven that "frequent exposure to x-rays can be harmful". Therefore in today's technology, "special measures are taken" to be absolutely sure that both the patient and doctor will be safe during the x-ray examination. [ ⁶ ] Affects and Effects Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen proved to become an influence in many people’s lives, including our very own. Upon the revolutionary discovery of x-rays, thousands around the world began to use the fresh new technology, saving multiple lives and finding hidden diseases that could not have been discovered before. Even Nikola Tesla , one of the world’s most amazing scientists, used this new research to develop a series of pictures using a form of x-radiation of his own design. Although both scientists appeared with their studies around the same era, Tesla did not once claim the design to truly be his.

Because of this, Röntgen congratulated him on his achievement with the utmost respect. Tesla later wrote Röntgen’s name on one of his x-ray files. [ ⁹ ] Nikola Tesla was not the only one that was affected by the Prussian physicist's work. Two different physicists, both in France during the period of early 1896, took his work and established even more data from it. Henry Bequerel, much like Röntgen himself, accidentally stumbled upon the fact that something else would give off rays whilst in a dark room. Uranium compounds, he discovered, let off these interesting rays that would end up clouding a photographic plate. The discovery, however, did not gain much attention of the media, who was too focused on Röntgen's marvelous x-rays at the time. Marie Curie , however, the second French physicist, took Bequerel's work even further. Using a device that her husband and her brother had made 15 years prior, she was able to study the Uranium compounds and how they would send out rays.

Eventually, her studies came to the conclusion that yes, Uranium was able to emit radiation regardless of its state, so a hypothesis came into play. She hypothesized that maybe the radiation came from somewhere deeper in the atom, and this shocked the science world, since it had been believed for centuries that the atom was the main part of everything and could not be broken down. Curie strengthened this hypothesis by finding that thorium compounds also emitted these radiations, and in order to describe these behaviors she invented the word radioactivity. [ ¹¹ ] Thus, in theory, without Röntgen, we may not have had a clue about the true nature of the atom or a word to describe the emission of rays. However, his work not only interested scientists but town officials and other societies. Roentgen Street was named after him and he received numerous prizes, medals, and awards. He was the first person ever to win a Nobel Prize in the area of Physics, after all. Not only that, but in 2004, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) named the element of Roentgenium (Rg) after him.

[ ¹⁰ ] Röntgen did not share the prizes alone through most of his career. In 1872, he married Anna Bertha Ludwig, having met her at a local café which happened to be run by her father. [ ² ] It was not new that Anna was stepping into a family that would bear a famous name- she was already the cousin of Otto Ludwig, a famous poet of the time. They had no children that would continue their famous legacy, but they did adopt. They adopted Josephine Bertha Ludwig, the 6-year old daughter of Anna's brother. Mrs. Röntgen died in 1919, however. The Things He Left Behind Image courtesy of OneShoeDiaries Without the amazing accidental discovery that Wilhelm Röntgen experienced on that early November day, the world today would definitely not be as it is now, especially as far as medical means. Without the discovery of x-rays and how to take photographs of these rays, millions of people could have been falsely diagnosed and died because there would not have been a way to see exactly what was wrong.

If somebody came into a dentist's office complaining about a toothache, without x-rays, their assistants would not have been able to completely discover the cause of the pain and correctly diagnose this person, possibly giving them something that may not even help them at all, therefore wasting money and time whilst doing so. On that note, if somebody entered an emergency room with an injured limb, doctors could not see that maybe it was a fractured bone and possibly do something to fix it. Not only that, but without his work, technology would not have continued to advance and progress so we could be able to make better machinery. After Röntgen's revelation on the topic of x-rays and what one could do with them, the world began to immediately develop more complex equipment. Among some of the things that came along approximately seventy years after his discovery were "higher speed imaging systems, electronic amplification devices, scintillation camera, ultrasonographic (US) devices, advances high capacity x-ray tubes, and rapid film processors." As decades have gone by, however, our computers and their ability to work with much higher capacity levels have matured. Therefore, these early developments have also given us the ability to create new, useful, life-saving instruments for the medical field.

CT scans and MRIs are just two examples of such instruments. [ ¹² ] He will also be forever known as the first physicist ever to be honored with a Nobel Prize in the area of Physics. None before him had achieved this award, and so now that it was known that one could gain a prize in that area, it inspired multiple generations of physicists and scientists to create work that would be worthy of such an honor. Now inspiring physicists had more of a motivation to continue their research and change the world. So influentual was he to the world that, in memory of his fabulous work, even his home received quite an honor. His home in Lennep, Prussia was turned into a museum, where visitors can go take a walk through and see the environment in which he grew up in. [ ¹³ ] That is not the only way this humble man gained an impact on the world. People throughout the Earth could still see him, and all they had to do was mail letters. This is because Wilhelm Röntgen's face appeared on a stamp circa the middle 1900s.

Also, in a recent poll held in London, 2009, the x-ray has been noted as one of the most valuable, life-changing inventions of all time, proving just how much this simple discovery could affect the way modern medicine and technology works today. [ ¹⁴ ] References Evolution of Cancer Treatments: Radiation | American Cancer Society Evolution of Cancer Treatments: Radiation The History of Cancer Evolution of Cancer Treatments: Radiation In 1896 a German physics professor, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, presented a remarkable lecture entitled “Concerning a New Kind of Ray.” Roentgen called it the “X-ray”, with “x” being the algebraic symbol for an unknown quantity. There was immediate worldwide excitement. Within months, systems were being devised to use x-rays for diagnosis, and within 3 years radiation was used in to treat cancer. In 1901 Roentgen received the first Nobel Prize awarded in physics. Radiation therapy began with radium and with relatively low-voltage diagnostic machines. In France, a major breakthrough took place when it was discovered that daily doses of radiation over several weeks greatly improved the patient’s chance for a cure.

The methods and the machines that deliver radiation therapy have steadily improved since then. At the beginning of the 20th century, shortly after radiation began to be used for diagnosis and therapy, it was discovered that radiation could cause cancer as well as cure it. Many early radiologists used the skin of their arms to test the strength of radiation from their radiotherapy machines, looking for a dose that would produce a pink reaction (erythema) which looked like sunburn. They called this the “erythema dose,” and this was considered an estimate of the proper daily fraction of radiation. It’s no surprise that many of them developed leukemia from regularly exposing themselves to radiation. Advances in radiation physics and computer technology during the last quarter of the 20th century made it possible to aim radiation more precisely. Conformal radiation therapy (CRT) uses CT images and special computers to very precisely map the location of a cancer in 3 dimensions. The patient is fitted with a plastic mold or cast to keep the body part still and in the same position for each treatment. The radiation beams are matched to the shape of the tumor and delivered to the tumor from several directions.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is like CRT, but along with aiming photon beams from several directions, the intensity (strength) of the beams can be adjusted. This gives even more control in decreasing the radiation reaching normal tissue while delivering a high dose to the cancer. A related technique, conformal proton beam radiation therapy, uses a similar approach to focusing radiation on the cancer. But instead of using x-rays, this technique uses proton beams. Protons are parts of atoms that cause little damage to tissues they pass through but are very effective in killing cells at the end of their path. This means that proton beam radiation can deliver more radiation to the cancer while possibly reducing damage to nearby normal tissues. Stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic radiation therapy are terms that describe several techniques used to deliver a large, precise radiation dose to a small tumor. The term surgery may be confusing because no cutting is actually done. The most common site treated with this radiation technique is the brain. A linear accelerator, or special machines such as the Gamma Knife or CyberKnife, can be used to deliver this treatment. Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) is a form of treatment that delivers radiation at the time of surgery.

The radiation can be given directly to the cancer or to the nearby tissues after the cancer has been removed. It’s more commonly used in abdominal or pelvic cancers and in cancers that tend to recur (come back after treatment). IORT minimizes the amount of tissue that’s exposed to radiation because normal tissues can be moved out of the way during surgery and shielded, allowing a higher dose of radiation to the cancer. Chemical modifiers or radiosensitizers are substances that make cancer more sensitive to radiation. The goal of research into these types of substances is to develop agents that will make the tumor more sensitive without affecting normal tissues. Researchers are also looking for substances that may help protect normal cells from radiation. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 - Perspectives Perspectives The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen A Helping Hand from the Media The world first discovered the sensational news that Wilhelm Röntgen's mysterious X-rays could penetrate clothing and human skin, not through scientists but through the press. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a physicist who had little time for publicity.

Like all other scientists the professor from Würzburg University in Franconia always sought recognition from his peers, but Röntgen rarely appeared at scientific conferences or wrote papers, let alone promoted his research findings outside of his field. All this changed after Röntgen's accidental discovery of X-rays sparked a media storm that meant his findings would have an impact like no other before it. On the evening of 8 November 1895, Röntgen was in his laboratory studying how cathode-ray tubes emit light. His attention was distracted by a glowing fluorescent screen that was too far from the tube to be affected by the cathode rays. Röntgen didn't leave his lab for weeks as he tried to investigate the source of the glow. He discovered that the impact of cathode rays on the glass vacuum tube was generating a new kind of invisible ray. The rays had extraordinary penetrative power – they could travel long distances and make the screen glow, even when cardboard, wood, copper and aluminium were placed in the way – and could be recorded on photographic plates. Röntgen knew immediately that he had to forego his natural reticence and disseminate this important discovery to the scientific community as soon as possible.

Over Christmas, he wrote a 10-page article entitled "On a new kind of rays", which was accepted by the Proceedings of the Würzburg Physical-Medical Society on 28 December. Röntgen named the discovery X-radiation, or X-rays, after the mathematical term 'X' that denotes something unknown. (He always preferred this term, even though other researchers insisted on calling it Röntgen rays.) A Fateful Trip The article was precise and reserved in tone, with no accompanying images, and so the chances are that most scientists would have ignored the findings. A trip to the post office in Würzburg on New Years' Day in 1896 changed all that. In Röntgen's hands were 90 envelopes, each containing a reprint of the article, which were addressed to physicists all over Europe. Twelve of the envelopes, addressed to friends or to distinguished scientists like Lord Kelvin, also contained nine photographs. Röntgen made several photos mainly of the interiors of metal objects, but it was another photo that led to a situation in which "all hell broke loose," as Röntgen would later complain.

Since X-rays could penetrate materials like metals and wood, it seemed natural to find out if they could penetrate flesh. What Röntgen discovered was a remarkable ability to see through flesh and make bones visible. As he described in his paper: "If the hand be held before the fluorescent screen, the shadow shows the bones darkly with only faint outlines of the surrounding tissues." To illustrate this effect, Röntgen took an X-ray photograph of his wife's hand, which produced an almost ghoulish image that clearly showed her bones and wedding ring. One of the recipients of these letters was Franz Exner, a former fellow student of Röntgen and at the time professor of experimental physics in Vienna. Exner was a convivial man, regularly inviting members of the faculty to informal dinners at his home. Röntgen's letter containing the photos arrived just in time for Exner to show his guests at one such gathering that upcoming Saturday, 4 January. One guest, Ernst Lecher, professor of physics in Prague, was so interested in the photos he asked Exner if he could borrow them for one day. Lecher was staying with his father in Vienna over the Christmas holidays, and knew he would be very interested in the images.

Hold the Front Page Lecher knew his father would be interested, not because he was a scientist, but because he was the editor of Vienna's leading daily newspaper Die Presse. As soon as the elder Lecher saw the images he knew he had a scoop on his hands, and immediately changed the front-page story for the next day's issue. There was no time to print the photos, so Lecher asked his son for a full account of the facts, and he worked during the night to create an article that would clearly describe the findings, without considerable exaggeration. Lecher's X-ray story appeared under the headline "A sensational discovery". Describing the potential of this new discovery, the article said: "If we let our fantasies run freely ... this could be of immeasurable help for the diagnosis of countless diseases." The story had an instant impact. Viennese foreign correspondents cabled the article urgently to their editors at home. On Monday 6 January 1896, leading German papers covered the story.

The Daily Chronicle published the first report in the United Kingdom, saying: "A sensational discovery, which, if the reports are confirmed, is likely to be attended by imperial consequences for physical and medical science, is spoken of in scientific circles here." On Tuesday, the UK's Standard sought to reassure its readers "that there is no joke or humbug in this matter. It is a serious discovery by a serious German professor." Röntgen's photographs of human hands, the Standard wrote, were "ghastly enough in appearances but from a scientific point of view they open up a wide field for speculation." Once the UK press picked up on the X-ray story the news spread around the world within a few days. The news had spread so quickly, in fact, that few publications realised that the Die Presse had misspelled Röntgen's name, attributing the new findings to one "Professor Routgen". Scientific and medical journals noticed the media coverage of X-rays, and began to report the findings too.

On 11 January The Lancet published an almost dismissive comment about Röntgen's findings, but one week later conceded that "the new discovery will produce quite a revolution in the present methods of examining the interior of the human body." Two weeks later the journal printed X-ray photographs of a human hand and of the lower half of a frog. Nature magazine dedicated 17 lines to Röntgen in its 16 January issue, and one week later published an English translation of Röntgen's paper. The lead article in the 1 February issue of the British Medical Journal, entitled The New Photography, contained a detailed description of Röntgen's method, and stated: "The application of the discovery to the photography of hidden structures is a feat sensational enough and likely to stimulate even the uneducated imagination." It did indeed. Gossip soon spread among strict and straight-laced elements of fin de siècle societies that X-rays could see through clothing and threaten privacy. "Through cloak and gown – and even stays, those naughty, naughty Roentgen (sic) rays", wrote one doggerel.

One opportunistic London company advertised "X-ray proof underclothing – especially for the sensitive woman" in the journal Electrical World, and is alleged to have made a small fortune. And in New York concerned citizens considered legislation against the use of X-rays in opera glasses. Medical Breakthrough Away from such concerns, scientists rushed to replicate and refine Röntgen's X-ray images. Scientists were free to create X-rays using cathode-ray tubes because Röntgen had deliberately not patented his discovery, convinced that his inventions and discoveries belonged to the world at large. "There were few laboratories in which attempts were not immediately made to repeat the experiment", Sir Arthur Schuster recalled in his memoirs. Schuster, one of the recipients of Röntgen's photos, was professor of physics at Manchester University, and he, like many other researchers, began using X-rays to identify foreign objects without surgery. "My laboratory was inundated by medical men bringing patients, who were suspected of having needles in various parts of their bodies", complained Schuster, "and during one week I had to give the best part of three mornings locating a needle in the foot of a ballet dancer." X-rays were adopted worldwide at an extraordinary pace.

In Montreal, Canada, a young man had been shot in the leg, but the bullet couldn't be found for weeks, until John Cox, professor of physics at McGill University, used X-rays to reveal that the bullet was lodged between the tibia and fibula. When the British Army launched an expedition to the Nile in spring 1896, its equipment included two X-ray machines to help localize bullets and diagnose bone fractures. Reluctant Celebrity The reaction to Röntgen's X-rays made him an instant celebrity. Many honours were bestowed upon him, streets were named after him, and Röntgen received countless honorary doctorates and Prizes, including the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901 for his discovery of the "remarkable rays". By the end of 1896, more than 1,000 books and papers had been published on X-rays and its applications. But Röntgen himself had little to do with any of this. He published only two more papers on X-rays, and apart from one public lecture in Würzburg he declined all offers for further lectures. Röntgen didn't even give a lecture after receiving his Nobel Prize.

It was as if the exposure resulting from his findings forced Röntgen to make a greater vow of silence. In 1899, he accepted an offer from the University of Munich, and remained committed to progress in all fields of physics, but as his assistant Abraham Joffe reported, he preferred to work on less sensational areas of research. Röntgen's silence could not affect his discovery spreading far and wide within the scientific, and even non-scientific, literature. In his novel The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann ( Nobel Laureate 1929 ) dedicated a chapter to the detailed description of an X-ray examination in a sanatorium in Davos, with philosophical discussions between doctor and patient about scientific progress and the nature of man. The title of this chapter sums up the scientific and public reaction to Röntgen's discovery: "My God, I see!" Bibliography Fölsing, A. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. Aufbruch ins Innere der Materie. München, 1995. Lentle, B. & Aldrich, J. Radiological sciences, past and present.

Lancet 350, 280–285 (1997). Mould, R.F. The early history of X-ray diagnosis with emphasis on the contributions of physics 1895–1915. Phys. Med. Biol. 40, 1741–1787 (1995). Posner, E. Reception of Röntgen's discovery in Britain and U.S.A. British Medical Journal 4, 357–360 (1970). Deutsches Röntgen Museum By Joachim Pietzsch , for Nobelprize.org The First X-Ray Technician: 4 Weird Facts About X-Ray Inventor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen The First X-Ray Technician: 4 Weird Facts About X-Ray Inventor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen 4 Comments Just like all great things in this world (peanut butter, low foam beer, the hands-allowed lap dance), they all have one thing in common: they came from someone equally great. However, it isn’t always the smartest or the most educated mind to create the technological advances that we hold dear and take for granted every single day.

For instance, the world’s first x-ray technician and inventor may have given the medical industry the greatest single invention since the pre-existing condition, but he also had a bizarre life that could make him eligible for a mental health tax reduction. He never completed high school and was kicked out of college They sawy the least useful education is the one you receive in school and in a lot of ways, that’s true. For instance, my teachers never told me that scoring on the first date wouldn’t ensure you a second one. Of course, this was before teachers starting sleeping with their students. The inventor of the x-ray received a similar education since he never obtained his high school diploma and he was even expelled from the Utrecht Technical School because of a harsh prank that he got blamed for that another student actually committed. Despite these lack of credentials, he not only went on to become a renowned physicist but he also received offers to teach at three universities, including the one that kicked me out for failing to finger the right class clown. He rejected any profits or royal titles for his work One of the few perks of becoming a world renowned scientist is the unique opportunity to turn your once nerdy lifestyle into that of a rapping pimp who poops diamonds.

Not only can you still recite the atomic weight of every element on the Periodic Table, but you’re famous enough to do it to have people hanging on your every five syllable word. Roentgen didn’t want any part of the life. Despite his advances, the critical acclaim and success as a physicists, he never sought out excess profits for his work and even turned down an offer of German nobility. He gave the money he earned from his Nobel Prize to a university. He didn’t even apply for a patent on his most famous invention. Instead he lived a quiet life out of the social spotlight with his invalid wife and focused solely on her and his work. And thanks all the good will, charity and karma he built up from this quiet life of study and accomplishment, he was nearly broke by the time he died. He invented the x-ray by accident Sometimes the very thing you’re looking for shows up when you’re not looking for it. The best time you find your keys is when you stop looking for them. And as you’re going through your day, suddenly they appear right in your hands, which is strange considering you somehow still got to work in our own car.

That’s when you learn a true lesson: you need to stop huffing glue fumes first thing in the morning. Roentgen discovered his most famous invention purely by chance . In 1895, he was working in his lab experimenting with cathode rays by trying to repeat the methods of some previous experiments to prove that the powerful rays could penetrate glass. He covered one of the tubes with black cardboard in a dark room and fed the cathode ray an electric current, but forgot to put a screen in front of the tube. The glowing tube left an impression on a piece of cardboard in the form of a giant “A” written by a student in liquid barium paltinocyanide. He replicated the situation again with a deck of cards and a book, which he could clearly see through the tube and the screen. Collegues described him as a complete scatterbrain Like all unbridled geniuses with a superior brain, the extreme positive swings can swing just as high in the other direction. Genius often breeds insanity and Roentgen had a crazy side to him helped him put the “eccentric” in his eccentric genius.

Some of his most famous experiments, including the one that led to the x-ray, were done in complete secret and rarely had any other witnesses. His classes and lectures made him unpopular with his students because he often jumped from concept to concept and didn’t provide clear instruction to his classes. He even left little instruction of his discoveries and experiments and ordered that all of his scientific findings be destroyed upon his death. English artist takes children's inventions and turns them into reality. February 1, 2016 Check out your links after the jump. May 25, 2013 Check out your links after the jump. May 20, 2013 NOVA - Official Website | Accidental Discoveries NOVA Posted 02.27.01 NOVA From the chance discovery of quinine as a malaria treatment in the 17th century to Alexander Fleming's accidental encounter with penicillium mold in 1928, some of medicine's most important advances have occurred through serendipity. Read about seven of them here.

Fortuitous accidents Accidents in medicine: The idea sends chills down your spine as you conjure up thoughts of misdiagnoses, mistakenly prescribed drugs, and wrongly amputated limbs. Yet while accidents in the examining room or on the operating table can be regrettable, even tragic, those that occur in the laboratory can sometimes lead to spectacular advances, life-saving treatments, and Nobel Prizes. A seemingly insignificant finding by one researcher leads to a breakthrough discovery by another; a physician methodically pursuing the answer to a medical conundrum over many years suddenly has a "Eureka" moment; a scientist who chooses to study a contaminant in his culture rather than tossing it out stumbles upon something entirely new. Consider the following historic cases: Quinine The story behind the chance discovery of the anti-malarial drug quinine may be more legend than fact, but it is nevertheless a story worthy of note. The account that has gained the most currency credits a South American Indian with being the first to find a medical application for quinine. According to legend, the man unwittingly ingested quinine while suffering a malarial fever in a jungle high in the Andes.

Needing desperately to quench his thirst, he drank his fill from a small, bitter-tasting pool of water. Nearby stood one or more varieties of cinchona, which grows from Colombia to Bolivia on humid slopes above 5,000 feet. The bark of the cinchona, which the indigenous people knew as quina-quina, was thought to be poisonous. But when this man's fever miraculously abated, he brought news of the medicinal tree back to his tribe, which began to use its bark to treat malaria. A laborer scrapes the bark from a cinchona tree. The bark is then sundried and pulverized to make the drug quinine. Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis Since the first officially noted use of quinine to fight malaria occurred in a community of Jesuit missionaries in Lima, Peru in 1630, historians have surmised that Indian tribes taught the missionaries how to extract the chemical quinine from cinchona bark. In any case, the Jesuits' use of quinine as a malaria medication was the first documented use of a chemical compound to successfully treat an infectious disease.

To this day, quinine-based anti-malarials are widely used as effective treatments against the growth and reproduction of malarial parasites in humans. Smallpox vaccination In 1796, Edward Jenner, a British scientist and surgeon, had a brainstorm that ultimately led to the development of the first vaccine. A young milkmaid had told him how people who contracted cowpox, a harmless disease easily picked up during contact with cows, never got smallpox, a deadly scourge. With this in mind, Jenner took samples from the open cowpox sores on the hands of a young dairymaid named Sarah Nelmes and inoculated eight-year-old James Phipps with pus he extracted from Nelmes' sores. (Experimenting on a child would be anathema today, but this was the 18th century.) The boy developed a slight fever and a few lesions but remained for the most part unscathed. A few months later, Jenner gave the boy another injection, this one containing smallpox. James failed to develop the disease, and the idea behind the modern vaccine was born.

A depiction of Edward Jenner vaccinating James Phipps, a boy of eight, on May 14, 1796 Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis Though doctors and scientists would not begin to understand the biological basis of immunity for at least 50 years after Jenner's first inoculation, the technique of vaccinating against smallpox using the human strain of cowpox soon became a common and effective practice worldwide. X-Rays X-rays have become an important tool for medical diagnoses, but their discovery in 1895 by the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rí¶ntgen had little to do with medical experimentation. Rí¶ntgen was studying cathode rays, the phosphorescent stream of electrons used today in everything from televisions to fluorescent light bulbs. One earlier scientist had found that cathode rays can penetrate thin pieces of metal, while another showed that these rays could light up a fluorescent screen placed an inch or two away from a thin aluminum "window" in the glass tube. Rí¶ntgen wanted to determine if he could see cathode rays escaping from a glass tube completely covered with black cardboard.

While performing this experiment, Rí¶ntgen noticed that a glow appeared in his darkened laboratory several feet away from his cardboard-covered glass tube. At first he thought a tear in the paper sheathing was allowing light from the high-voltage coil inside the cathode-ray tube to escape. But he soon realized he had happened upon something entirely different. Rays of light were passing right through the thick paper and appearing on a fluorescent screen over a yard away. Physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rí¶ntgen (1845-1923), discoverer of the X-ray Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis Rí¶ntgen found that this new ray, which had many characteristics different from the cathode ray he had been studying, could penetrate solids and even record the image of a human skeleton on a photographic negative. In 1901, the first year of the Nobel Prize, Rí¶ntgen won for his accidental discovery of what he called the "X-ray," which physicians worldwide soon adopted as a standard medical tool. Allergy Charles Robert Richet, a French physiologist, made several experiments testing the reaction of dogs exposed to poison from the tentacles of sea anemones.

Some of the dogs died from allergic shock, but others survived their reactions and made full recoveries. Weeks later, because the recovered dogs seemed completely normal, Richet wasted no time in reusing them for more experiments. They were given another dose of anemone poison, this time much smaller than before. The first time the dogs' allergic symptoms, including vomiting, shock, loss of consciousness, and in some cases death, had taken several days to fully develop. But this time the dogs suffered such serious symptoms just minutes after Richet administered the poison. Charles Robert Richet used poison from a sea anemone like this one in his experiments on allergies. Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis Though Richet was puzzled by what had happened, he realized he could not disregard the unexpected result of his experiment. Later, he noted that his eventual conclusions about the dogs' affliction were "not at all the result of deep thinking, but of a simple observation, almost accidental; so that I have had no other merit than that of not refusing to see the facts which presented themselves before me, completely evident." Richet's conclusions from his findings came to form the theoretical basis of the medical study and treatment of allergies.

He eventually proved that there was a physiological state called anaphylaxis that was the antithesis of prophylaxis: When an allergic subject is exposed to an allergen a second time, he or she is even more sensitive to its effects than the first time. Instead of building immunity to the substance through exposure (prophylaxis), the allergic subject's immunity becomes greatly reduced. In 1913 Richet received a Nobel Prize for his discovery and articulation of diseases of allergy. Insulin Frederick G. Banting, a young Canadian doctor, and Professor John J.R. MacLeod of the University of Toronto shared a Nobel Prize in 1923 for their isolation and clinical use of insulin against diabetes. Their work with insulin followed from the chance discovery of the link between the pancreas and blood-sugar levels by two other doctors on the other side of the Atlantic decades earlier. Frederick Banting (left) and John MacLeod discovered insulin, the elusive substance that regulates blood-sugar levels in the body.

Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis In 1889, German physicians Joseph von Mering and Oscar Minkowski removed the pancreas from a healthy dog in order to study the role of the pancreas in digestion. Several days after the dog's pancreas was removed, the doctors happened to notice a swarm of flies feeding on a puddle of the dog's urine. On testing the urine to determine the cause of the flies' attraction, the doctors realized that the dog was secreting sugar in its urine, a sign of diabetes. Because the dog had been healthy prior to the surgery, the doctors knew that they had created its diabetic condition by removing its pancreas and thus understood for the first time the relationship between the pancreas and diabetes. With more tests, von Mering and Minkowski concluded that a healthy pancreas must secrete a substance that controls the metabolism of sugar in the body. Though many scientists tried in vain to isolate the particular substance released by the pancreas after the Germans' accidental discovery, it was Banting and MacLeod who established that the mysterious substance was insulin and began to put it to use as the first truly valuable means of controlling diabetes. Pap smear Dr.

George Nicholas Papanicolaou's chance observation, while doing a genetic study, of cancer cells on a slide containing a specimen from a woman's uterus spawned the routine use of the so-called "Pap smear," a simple test that has saved millions of women from the ravages of uterine cancer. Dr. George N. Papanicolaou, who devised the "Pap" smear test for cancer, examines a slide in his laboratory in 1958. Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis In 1923, Papanicolaou undertook a study of vaginal fluid in women, in hopes of observing cellular changes over the course of a menstrual cycle. In female guinea pigs, Papanicolaou had already noticed cell transformation and wanted to corroborate the phenomenon in human females. It happened that one of Papanicolaou's human subjects was suffering from uterine cancer. Upon examination of a slide made from a smear of the patient's vaginal fluid, Papanicolaou was astonished to discover that abnormal cancer cells could be plainly observed under a microscope.

"The first observation of cancer cells in the smear of the uterine cervix," he later wrote, "gave me one of the greatest thrills I ever experienced during my scientific career." Papanicolaou quickly realized that doctors could administer a simple test to gather a sample of vaginal fluid and test it for early signs of uterine and other cancers. Penicillin The identification of penicillium mold by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1928 is one of the best-known stories of medical discovery, not only because of its accidental nature, but also because penicillin has remained one of the most important and useful drugs in our arsenal, and its discovery triggered invaluable research into a range of other invaluable antibiotic drugs. While researching the flu in the summer of 1928, Dr. Fleming noticed that some mold had contaminated a flu culture in one of his petri dishes. Instead of throwing out the ruined dish, he decided to examine the moldy sample more closely. Penicillium mold (enlarged here many times) is a fungus that differs little from one that appears on bread in warm, humid weather.

Enlarge Photo credit: Corbis Fleming had reaped the benefits of taking time to scrutinize contaminated samples before. In 1922, Fleming had accidentally shed one of his own tears into a bacteria sample and noticed that the spot where the tear had fallen was free of the bacteria that grew all around it. This discovery peaked his curiosity. After conducting some tests, he concluded that tears contain an antibiotic-like enzyme that could stave off minor bacterial growth. Six years later, the mold Fleming observed in his petri dish reminded him of this first experience with a contaminated sample. The area surrounding the mold growing in the dish was clear, which told Fleming that the mold was lethal to the potent staphylococcus bacteria in the dish. Later he noted, "But for the previous experience, I would have thrown the plate away, as many bacteriologists have done before." Instead, Fleming took the time to isolate the mold, eventually categorizing it as belonging to the genus penicillium. After many tests, Fleming realized that he had discovered a non-toxic antibiotic substance capable of killing many of the bacteria that cause minor and severe infections in humans and other animals.

His work, which has saved countless lives, won him a Nobel Prize in 1945. Keep that mind open For all you would-be Nobel Prize-winners, remember the one trait that tied all these lucky strikers together: openmindedness. As the American physicist Joseph Henry once noted, "The seeds of great discoveries are constantly floating around us, but they only take root in minds well prepared to receive them." This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Cancer Warrior . Related Links

Question: A discovery by Professor Wilhelm Roentgen in the 1890s led to which amazing medical invention?
Answer: X-Ray